The present technology relates to an electrical measuring cartridge for measuring electrical properties of a biological sample. More particularly, the present technology relates to an electrical measuring cartridge of a biological sample, in which the electrical measuring cartridge enables a plurality of electrical measurements to be performed simply and at high accuracy. The present technology also relates to an electrical measuring apparatus and an electrical measuring method using the electrical measuring cartridge.
Measurement of electrical properties of a biological sample, determination of physical properties of the biological sample from the measurement result, and discrimination of a kind of cell or the like included in the biological sample, and so on, are performed (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-042141). The measured electrical properties may be complex permittivity or frequency dispersion (a dielectric spectrum) thereof. The complex permittivity or the frequency dispersion is generally calculated by measuring a complex capacitance and complex impedance between electrodes using a solution retainer or the like including the electrodes configured to apply a voltage to a solution.
In addition, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-181400, a technology of obtaining information related to blood coagulation from permittivity of blood is disclosed, and “a blood coagulation system analysis device including a pair of electrodes, an application unit configured to apply an alternating current voltage to the pair of electrodes at predetermined time intervals, a measurement unit configured to measure the permittivity of the blood disposed between the pair of electrodes, and an analysis unit configured to analyze a level of function of the blood coagulation system using the permittivity of the blood measured at the time intervals after an action of the anticoagulant agent functioned in the blood is released” is disclosed.
When the electrical properties of the biological sample are measured, as a container configured to accommodate the biological sample, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-052906 discloses a sample cartridge having a cylindrical body made of an insulating material, configured to hold the biological sample in a region including surfaces of electrodes inserted into an inner hole from both of end openings and a surface of the inner hole, and in which a constriction section disposed between the two opposite electrodes and formed by constricting the inner hole is installed at that region, measuring electrical properties of a biological sample.
Here, when measuring electrical properties of a biological sample, a plurality of measurements is performed in many cases, and determination is made in a comprehensive manner from the obtained plurality of measurement results.
However, the sample cartridge that measures electrical properties of a biological sample disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-052906 has only one region where a biological sample can be held. Therefore, the sample cartridge in the conventional form comes to be necessary for each measurement when performing a plurality of measurements, and thus has not matched practical situations when measuring electrical properties.